All posts by Tom Ewer

Being in business for yourself opens up a world of opportunities.
You can seize the opportunity to build something that can sustain itself (and you) for a lifetime and even beyond. You can change your life and achieve things that you never thought possible.
But if we take a more pessimistic viewpoint for a moment, being in business for yourself can also be a grueling and largely fruitless endeavor.
Even if you do manage to establish yourself to a point where you can pay the bills, you may find growth beyond that point extremely challenging. And who wants to run a stagnant...

This post was written by Tom Ewer, a regular contributor for MyWifeQuitHerJob.com!
If you’re into online business then you’ve almost certainly heard of The Four Hour Work-Week — an enormously popular book about “lifestyle design” written by Tim Ferriss.
I first read the book around two years ago, not long after I had started my journey to quitting my job and building a successful online business.
I recently re-read it while on vacation and found it to be time very well spent — the principles it teaches certainly bear reexamination.
In this post I want to focus on two of the most important...

This post was written by Tom Ewer, a regular contributor for MyWifeQuitHerJob.com!
If you’re a regular reader of my blog then you’ll know I spend as much time talking about my failures as I do my successes. Why? Because I often learn more from failure than I do from success.
With that in mind, today I want to share with you a story of one such failure. There is however a twist — I plan for this failure to ultimately lead to success. I plan to learn from my mistakes and apply the lessons I have learned practically.
The story is of an...

Few things should be more important to a blogger than their brand.
It is what attracts readers. It is what creates subscribers and evangelists. It is what sets you apart from your peers. It gives people a reason to visit your blog rather than any other.
If you can create a strong brand then half the battle of building a successful blog is won. Any marketing efforts you personally make wilt in the shadow of the power of a recognisable brand. Create something that people are drawn to and you will find that your blog takes on a life of its own.
In...

Running an online micro business can be a unique and thrilling experience. It’s a world apart from the 9-to-5s many of us have worked before and I am sure that most of us would never consider going back.
However, online entrepreneurship does come packaged with its own unique set of challenges. Although it can seem like a fairytale dream from the outside, in reality there are pros and cons like anything else.
One such con is stagnancy — a period where your business stops growing. It can take its toll both financially and psychologically.
Business growth is exciting and fills you with...

It would seem that Rule #1 of making money online is “build an email list.”
And with good reason — an email list can grow to become your greatest asset. And believe me, a targeted and engaged email is an asset in the traditional sense — it can be leveraged to generate a return.
I know this from personal experience: my blog’s email list makes me money directly (from affiliate product referrals and my own product sales) and indirectly (via word-of-mouth referrals and ongoing engagement).
The purpose of this post is not to spew out the usual list building tips that you...

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can be a cruel process to follow: just one wrong step can render all of your efforts a complete waste of time.
That fact is never more true than with the keyword research stage. A simple misunderstanding at this initial stage of SEO can compromise everything you do from that point onwards. Worst of all, you often won’t discover your mistake until much later (i.e. after you’ve put a great deal of work in)
With the above in mind, in this post I want to cover the five keyword research mistakes that you must avoid.
I have learned...

This post was written by Tom Ewer, a regular contributor For MyWifeQuitHerJob.com
I have a terrible habit of starting up blog side projects that I simply do not have the time to maintain.
I start with the best of intentions — telling myself that I will not need to do a great deal to keep it going — but the fact is that if you do not commit yourself wholeheartedly to a project, it will likely flounder and die.
But at least I get one thing right on those startup projects: I don’t spend an inordinate amount of time worrying about how the...

Over the past couple of years I have learned that making money from affiliate marketing is not easy.
While the theory is pretty simple — refer traffic to a product or product(s) in return for a commission — the practicalities are far more involved.
In reality, affiliate marketing is more of an art than a science. Trial and error is the king of optimizing your earnings.
I have employed trial and error to increase my affiliate earnings to an equivalent 8.5 cents per unique visitor (i.e. for every hundred unique visitors to my site I make $8.50).
While I will always strive...

If you know me then you know I love Twitter.
It is my social media network of choice. Although Facebook is bigger, LinkedIn is more professional and Pinterest is more colorful, I always come back to Twitter — it is the second highest individual referrer of traffic to my site behind Google.
In my opinion Twitter is an online business owner’s dream: it allows you to instantly interact with your peers and attract followers (and therefore potential readers/subscribers/purchasers) at a rate like no other network (in my experience).
But as with most things, getting started can be the biggest challenge. In this post...

In my opinion, business growth is driven by the ability to store and analyse ideas in such a way that they can be acted upon at any time.
But for most of us, we have far more ideas than time. Today’s great idea may not be ready to act upon at the moment it comes to you, which is why you need a trusted system in which you can collect and store ideas.
In this post I want to talk about my method for storing and regularly reviewing ideas so that they are acted upon in an efficient and effective manner. It...

This post was written by Tom Ewer, a regular contributor for MyWifeQuitHerJob.com
The biggest secret of effective blog marketing is that there is no secret.
The two most effective things you can do when it comes to building a successful blog is to create great content and build relationships with likeminded people who will be happy to share that content (through social media, direct links, their email lists, and so on).
If you nail just those two things then you’re likely to succeed as a blogger. Forget advanced SEO, vain attempts at going viral, and all of the countless little marketing tips that...

I love sales page optimization.
Creating the product is the tough (and often tedious) bit. Meanwhile, optimizing your sales page to boost income offers instant results and can be fun and rewarding. This is coming from someone who knew literally nothing about sales page optimization just a few months ago.
In this post I want to cut through all the fluff and recommend two simple changes you can make to your sales page to boost your conversion rates dramatically. I have tried both of these to good effect in recent weeks and want to share my success with you!
A Word of Warning...

This post was written by Tom Ewer, a regular contributor for MyWifeQuitHerJob.com
Although I am English, I am an American Football fan. My sister lives in Houston, Texas and I first got into the game when I saw the UT Longhorns win the 2006 Rose Bowl (with that infamous Vince Young touchdown run).
I was recently watching a highlight real and got to thinking about the basic fundamentals of football and how they relate to business.
The way in which football can serve as an effective analogy for growing and developing a business is quite compelling.
Even if you’re not a football...

Are you ready to change the way you work forever?
That’s what Rework, a book written by the founders of 37Signals, promises.
It’s a bold promise indeed, but having read it I have found that it does in fact live up to the hype. While it teaches a lot of things that I have already taken on board, there is a hell of a lot to learn from this book if you are willing to read it.
But you don’t have to take my word for it. In this post I want to share with you three of the eighty-six lessons taught...

This post was written by Tom Ewer, a regular contributor for MyWifeQuitHerJob.com!
I started learning piano about six weeks ago. It’s something that I’ve always wanted to do and now I seem to have the time, money and determination to make it a reality. I’m really pleased with my progress to date and seem to be improving quickly.
This morning my piano teacher said that I was playing a piece that she would expect a student to learn after a year of playing, which was of course very encouraging.
I don’t say this to boast (after all, I am no virtuoso —...

The life of an internet entrepreneur offers an interesting paradox. Those on the outside look in with envy at our ability to work when we see fit, which is the very same thing that so many of us struggle with.
As an internet entrepreneur who works from home I am fighting a constant battle against idleness. Some days I might be super productive and get a huge amount done, while on others I have no motivation to do anything.
I am sure that many of you are in a similar position fight the same demons on a daily basis.
With the above...

This post was written by Tom Ewer, a regular contributor for MyWifeQuitHerJob.com
It’s a common trick in blogging (and marketing in general) to suck people in with an intriguing headline — just like the one above. However, it can backfire if you don’t deliver on your promise.
But for people like me, I can assure you that this post will not disappoint. Over the past few weeks I have implemented something new in my life that has had a truly dramatic effect.
It has truly changed my life — not in an “overnight millionaire” style but in a practical and beneficial manner.
My...

This post was written by Tom Ewer, a regular contributor for MyWifeQuitHerJob.com!
Strictly speaking I launched my business in May 2011 which was when I first decided that I wanted to quit my job. I started building my first website and the rest, as they say, is history.
That is of course the extremely short version of a story that has been marked by peaks and troughs like any other. As I look back at the development of my business so far I am drawn to a few key moments in which small decisions led to relatively big outcomes.
These so-called “tipping...

In my opinion, every passing day sees the power of paid marketing diminish and the rise of content marketing continue. Hubspot’s claim that blogging trumps traditional marketing is well known amongst content marketers and there is some credence to the hype.
Personally speaking, I see no need to resort to paid marketing when it comes to promoting your website.
You might choose to do it as a supplementary strategy if there is a positive return to be earned, but I believe there is no beating the power of content marketing when it comes to the Internet.
One of the most important facets...